Selling items online is one of the major forces that keeps the internet alive. From shipping products from a warehouse, to connecting buyers and sellers of various objects, to selling digital media, the internet is full of commerce. As such, there are many resources for setting up an online store. In most cases these are shopping carts to sell physical items. Zen Cart is a popular choice for this. Tagito recently launched a tool that allows you to sell digital media online. This can be anything from documents, music files, video, or any other file that people can download.

What I like about Tagito is ease of setup. Create a free account, upload your file, set the price and it gives you a snippet of code to place on your webpage. This will create a Tagito tag for users to click and purchase. What I don’t like about Tagito is when somebody chooses to buy the product, they’re forced to create a Tagito account as well. Forcing users to divulge unnecessary personal information will drive away business. People don’t like signing up for new accounts and it causes them to rethink how important this purchase actually is. Tagito’s explanation is that it “prevents just anybody from downloading your stuff”. What? If I’m in business I want just anybody to download my stuff. I’m calling B.S. on Tagito. In their thirst for users they’re requiring registration, thus creating a stranglehold on their profits and yours.

The business model for Tagito is they take 10% of all sales. This is great for a startup solution as there’s no fees upfront. Payments are made through PayPal which is nice. Most people trust working with them.

Overall I’m going to give Tagito the Slap Down. Whatever that is, I’m not quite sure. In this case it means I’m likely to look for a new solution before using them. If it can be avoided, don’t make users register unless it’s necessary.

SlapBack: Steve – thanks for that. It IS helpful. I agree with the registration to buy being a hassle; it’s because we want them to be able to come back and re-download the file in case they lose it. When we tried it the other way, people were complaining because they only got the one chance to download, and if something happened they had to contact the seller…etc. But hey – please think of a better way!

OK. I think I reached the nirvana for Tagito’s business model. At first they made downloads anonymous, which didn’t work since people lost their files and ate up customer support time trying to get them back. Then they made users register and some guy with a blog comes along and pokes them in the eye for it. What if they gave users the option to register if they’d like to be able to recover lost files, or not register if they prefer to remain anonymous. Now that would be the real Slap Down.

SlapBack: Steve – yeah, we just put in the anonymous option, thanks to your validation. They get the download email, and it says that if they want to access the file in the future, they’ll just have to register. So, best of both worlds. So what we’ll do is let the seller optionally require buyer registration, and a click-through usage agreement before the download. Just give everybody the ability to choose.

It appears Tagito did not withstand the rigors of startupdom. I’m not sure when they pulled the site down, but it’s either been rebranded or sitting in the vast and forgotten internet waste bin.